


I had a premonition where we fell into a rhythm (where the music don't stop for life)

by Perfectharmonyloveschaos



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Emotionally Repressed, Extroverted Introvert and Introverted Extrovert Duo 2.0, Gen, I think these two would get on great, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Klaus Hargreeves & Sloane Hargreeves Friendship, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Has Telekinesis, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Mentioned Number Six | Ben Hargreeves, Mentioned Reginald Hargreeves, Telekinetic Klaus Hargreeves, The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy) Are Trying To Be A Good Family, The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy) Need a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:43:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29550195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perfectharmonyloveschaos/pseuds/Perfectharmonyloveschaos
Summary: In which Klaus tries to get away from everything by going to a club and ends up discovering a new power to Dua Lipa's song 'Levitating'.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Everyone, Klaus Hargreeves & Sloane Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Allison & Diego & Klaus & Luther & Vanya & Number Six | Ben Hargreeves
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	I had a premonition where we fell into a rhythm (where the music don't stop for life)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a word of warning in that I don't go to clubs and haven't been to one since two years ago when I finished school so I don't really know anything about Clubs or alcohol based on experience and have to rely on knowledge from tv shows and films. So if anything here isn't realistic, just know I have no clue what I am writing about and I'm making it up as I go!
> 
> Also it is nearly 5am but I really wanted to get this up.
> 
> This is based on desnoot on Tumblr's post [here](https://desnoot.tumblr.com/post/643060066787999744/klus-being-so-fed-up-with-everything-he-just)

Being surrounded by corpses all the time, Klaus knew not many were surprised at how the flicker of life, glitter and sweat drew him in like a moth to flame—to taste his forbidden fruit—breathing in the humid air as the world before him shifted to the rhythm of scantily clad flesh and grinding bodies. 

Closed conversations fluttered by his ears, drowned out by the low bass and raised ~~living~~ voices as he dipped in and out of the crowds, shaking his shoe after stepping in something sticky which a part of his brain whimpered to just be a spilt drink.

There were almost never any ghosts in nightclubs.

~~Except for Ben.~~

Throwing back the remainder of his glass, filled high with something sweet that softened the ringing between his eyes, Klaus felt his grin pierce his cheek, limbs hooked back onto the counter rim to keep himself balanced as he let his weight slump onto the stool.

He could feel the trickle of sweat down his neck, veins pulsing as he heaved another breath before slamming his glass back onto the countertop with a snort.

It was not nearly enough.

Lamenting about the loss of her latest boy-toy, the girl by his side—he thought her name was Ashley, or maybe Christy?—continued on without so much as blinking as she raised her dainty glass to her glossed lips. Their short meeting outside hadn’t seemed to have set in a deep, lifelong friendship as she quickly vanished in between the sway of huddled bodies.

Some pop song in a language he didn’t have the energy to try and pick out finished with cheers across the _Tairngire_ , singing erupting from the other side of the bar as a herd of women clambered to their feet and almost slipped on tipsy heels.

“-is a lot?”

Blinking away the rising pressure between his temples, Klaus squinted at the dark locks cascading down thin shoulders and a subtly stained white blouse, staring back at the woman that seemed convinced he hadn’t noticed her shuffling closer to him.

“Huh?” Klaus blurted, his voice pitching before shrugging the confusion of the bartender away with a glass raised for another fill, stealing a sip of the amber liquid once more as he arched a brow towards Sloane.

The corners of her lips curled as Klaus leaned toward her, tucking a curl of his own hair back towards the makeshift bun trailing down his back. “Do you do this a lot?” She reaffirmed again, her eyes wide and expecting in a sense that made his heart ache, swallowing a hard gulp of alcohol to try and soothe it. “Um… drinking and-”

“Living?” Klaus tightened his grip on his glass, ignoring the pang of his chest at the slip of gaze back down to the counter. Lowering his drink back onto the counter, his lips pursed together, “-I _used_ to… a lot.”

Sloane failed to meet his eye, her expression shifting at the shrug of his shoulders, instead watching his finger trace along the rim of his glass. “What happened?” She mumbled; her voice almost inaudible unless Klaus had been waiting for her to decide on what to say.

“The world ended.”

Klaus snorted at how she flinched, her face blanched as her attention rested firmly on playing with a stray napkin. Doe-ish features, dark hairs falling over her face… if he didn’t look straight at her, a part of him could almost imagine that this whole nightmare was just him and Vanya taking some quality sibling time.

"Why me?" Klaus blurted out quickly, clicking his tongue off the top of his mouth as he turned to face her, earning a look in the process. "Why not trail anyone else? It's not like they tell me anything that Reggie would find useful..." He stole another sip, winching at the bitter taste that stung the back of his throat. "-you haven't even tried to kidnap me yet."

Sloane squinted her eyes in confusion, "Kidnap... did you guys _kidnap_ people?!"

"Nope," Klaus said after a moment with the smack of his lips, giving her a wide, closed smile that hurt his cheeks after a second. "But Daddy Dearest must have let you out for a reas-"

Klaus paused. A quiet laugh escaped him, hitching like a gasp at the back of his throat and scratching all the way down to his chest. 

"He doesn't know you're here."

Sloane, sitting open with parted lips, firmly clenched her jaw shut as she shifted back to her spot at the bar.

"He said you communed with the dead."

Klaus continued to laugh, the sound pitched into a quiet giggle that dug an aching hole in his stomach as he lifted his glass back up to his lips. 

"Lemme' guess," The remaining whiskey onto his lips with a gulp, dropping the glass with a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "-when we all met at the Academy... the rest of you only saw you five and the glowing footstool-"

"Christopher."

His teeth gently pierced his lips, the scent of alcohol on his breath threatening to make his eyes water. "-and you miss _your_ Number Six?"

"Of... of course we do!"

Klaus laughed once more, gently shaking his head. 

A quick call to the bartender left two glasses before him, shoving one aside to Sloane as she merely blinked at them, her eyes slowing creeping over to his.

Swallowing down a chuckle with a mouthful of whiskey, Klaus nudged his head towards the second drink that still remained untouched on the counter. "Nothing like a good olde' dose of peer pressure to bond two _technical_ siblings, huh?"

"We aren't allowed to poison ourselves... Dad says it could inhibit our-"

Klaus blew a raspberry before she could finish, using a finger to nudge the glass closer to her. "Eh, said same to thing to me, but when in Rome...?"

"Pretty sure that saying doesn't really apply here..." Sloane bit back with a roll of her eyes, the familiar tight curl of her mouth luring a smile from Klaus— ~~not him~~ —as she lifted her glass up to her lips in unison with him, gagging quietly within the moment the amber drink passed her lips, causing Klaus to spit his own out onto the counter with a cackle. "J-jesus Chr-how do you _like_ this stuff?!"

"'Fraid my name is _Klaus_ ," He grinned back, "You gotta take stuff slow, otherwise instead of all that hazy goodness you just, well... you become Luther."

Sloane arched a brow at him, but choose to instead take another sip, swallowing it back with a shudder.

Twisting his hips, Klaus instead swerved around to let his back face the bar, tucking his legs under his stool as sundry onlookers took to the dancefloor before letting his gaze slip aside back towards his silent companion. She sat astride on her stool, swinging her legs mindlessly under her, only for her attention to perk along with Klaus as the sound of people clapping in unison to the song that began to play.

_'If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy and I can take you for a ride-'_

Sloane pushed herself upward, balancing her on her toes to try and stand taller, her drink left abandoned. Klaus let himself watch, not that he would've usually cared for others silence discomfort unless they made it blatantly clear, brushing his hair into his face while trying to catching his mouth with his hand, his eyes drifting back and forth towards the crowds. His frame tightened into himself; _too many too many too many there were too many-_

"You wanna dance?"

The arid taste of his mouth made him lunge backward for his drink, tossing it back into his throat without taking a breath as he turned away from Sloane.

_'I had a premonition that we fell into a rhythm-'_

The sharp beat etching into his skull as his brain cried out for air almost synchronized with the damn music pulsing through the club, the speakers blaring it loud enough to shake the counter if you were sober enough to notice. Tapping his nails in what he hoped to be to the beat—he was pretty sure Vanya alone had gotten any semblance of the music gene of the family—against the side of his glass, he didn't speak for a moment.

 ~~"Klaus stay strong you can do-"~~

_'Where the music don't stop for life-'_

"I don't..." Klaus murmured, his voice cracking as he voice a breath of warm air into his lungs, his other hand now digging into the counter with his nails with enough strength that he was sure they would soon bleed. 

_" ~~No one needs your shit Klaus... that's why you're always alone."~~_

"Sure," He answered instead, feeling the pit in his stomach renovating a deeper cavity upward into his chest, the hard ache at grazing her sleeve with his hand as he tugged her along lest she get lost in the sea of fumbling bodies and flashing lights. Her eyes were wide; gazing around like he was sure some author—probably Vanya, although she hadn't been the most dramatic compared to the little segments he had managed to catch ~~over Ben's shoulder~~ when hiding from the cold in a local library or before that during rehab—would compare to plates or even the moon. "T'is mine duty to show my newest apprentice the wonders of nightlife escapades!"

He couldn't tell whether it was Sloane who had laughed behind him, but allowed himself to grin, nevertheless.

' _Glitter in the sky, glitter in your eye-_ '

Reaching out behind him, Klaus grinned wider as Sloane took his hand after a moment of hesitation.

' _Shining just the way I like-_ '

Klaus swallowed a breath of the club air, soaking in the familiar sensation of dry ice smoke brushing off flesh and the array of coloured lights threatening to blind him if he opened his eyes. Surrounded by death, who could deny him one night of chaotic serenity? The escape of likeminded souls shining through the dark shadows of the club and hidden corners? To live for one night with enlivened souls, even if death still haunted his wake, feeling the prickle of death's chill on his heels.

"No one cares about you!" Sloane met him with an upset glare, only for it to loosen as he stepped closer to her, grabbing ahold of her tense arms and spreading them outwards away from her body. "I mean... uh, everyone is living for themselves! So, you should too!"

Klaus knew that if ~~Ben~~ anyone else had been there, he would’ve been called out for his own attitude, but once Sloane started to sway from side to side a part of him gave up on caring, even if silently.

‘ _If you’re feeling like you need a little bit of company-_ ’

The glaring and silent looks from his siblings weren’t anything new—drugging his powers away, dying and finally learning what had happened to their dad, getting sober, falling off the wagon, not allowing his body to be hijacked ~~by Ben~~ — there wasn’t any point on trying to make them happy, so why bother?

Watching her spin around, her arms waving at her sides as she slowly loosened the tension in her limbs, Sloane simply smiled back at him.

‘ _You’ve met me at the perfect time-_ ’

The crowds around them seemed to thicken, filling out as cheering and the sound of voices shouting along to the music drowned out the sound of their shoes clicking on the floor, the lights crashing off every surface in a flurry of energy and life.

‘ _You want me, I want me, baby-_ ’

Klaus laughed as Sloane turned back to him, neither managing to clap in time to the sound of the music.

‘ _My Sugarboo, I’m levitating-_ ’

Her hands rose to cover her face, subtle trails of sweat trickling down her brow as they both followed the rhythm, her eyes every so often tracing back over to him—did she really think he’d just abandon her there? —before throwing him a smile.

‘ _The Milky Way we’re renegading, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah-_ ’

Klaus didn’t recognise the song, but not paying attention was as common a trait of his as talking to himself, so he shrugged the thought away as he tapped Sloane on the shoulder, twisting behind her back.

‘ _I got you moonlight, you’re my starlight-’_

Sloane scoffed, smacking him lightly on the shoulder as she broke away with a few steps.

‘ _I need you, all night, come on dance with me-_ ’

The space between them didn’t stay for long. Holding out his arm, neither Klaus nor Sloane held back the laughter that escaped them as he spun her clumsily.

‘ _I’m levitating_ -’

The beat slipped back once more, luring Klaus to soften his movements, gliding along the floor as he felt Sloane’s eyes on him; analytical… huh, so this is what it might’ve felt like to bring Five to a club.

“Take a picture!” He shouted, leaning forwards with a smirk. “-I’ll last longer!”

Sloane merely stuck her tongue out in retaliation, earning a gasp of fake mortification that instead made her shake her head.

“I, uh…” She finally replied, tucking her head into her shoulders while trying to keep her previous momentum by shifting her feet along the floor. “-how do you do it?”

‘ _I believe that you’re for me, I feel it in our energy-’_

Klaus stretched his arms out, wiggling his hips as he tucked his arms back, the muscles of his back stretching beneath his shirt. The material was soft, but not light enough to lose keep him from sweating, his long coat left behind at the Academy.

‘ _I see us written in the stars-_ ’

Could he even call it his home if he had never been at home there?

‘ _We can go wherever, so let’s do it now or never-_ ’

Did he even have a home in that case?

‘ _Baby, nothing’s ever, ever too far-_ ’

“Here,” Klaus said instead, waving his hands to urge her forwards. “I haven’t been to a club since…” ~~Dave~~ “-since _forever_ , so we can suck as a team!”

“ _Glitter in the sky, glitter in my eyes-_ ’

Sloane let out a chuckle, brushing her hands down her hips, smoothing out the wrinkles of her blouse as she watched him sway his hips, adjusting his legs as he went.

‘ _Shining just the way we are-_ ’

Why hadn’t she cornered him on the street, or at the bar? Why surround them with ordinary people – _collateral damage_ , her… their father had always said – rather than play his game?

‘ _I feel like we’re forever every time we get together-_ ’

They weren’t meant to be dancing, laughing… being like _ordinary_ people.

‘ _But whatever, let’s get lost on Mars-_ ’

Weren’t they meant to be more – extraordinary?

The thrill of movement, the adrenaline seeping into them as the world around them blurred nearly convinced Klaus he was high – was this how the others felt on missions, the rush of confidence and poise? – despite the clarity of his thoughts.

Mouthing along to the now-familiar words of the chorus, the prickle of energy in the air sent shivers down his spine. Life pulsed all around him; fabric brushing off his bare arms, the beat thumping through the floor like a heartbeat matching his own; voicing singing and shouting everything but his name.

The scent of alcohol and sweat flooded his senses, but the prickle in his head nestled him comfortable between intoxicated strangers and Sloane, blinking his eyes open for a moment to see her mere inches from him.

Catching his gaze, she lifted her arms above her head, spinning clumsily in a circle before stumbling over to him, laughing an apology after nearly knocking a stranger over. She didn’t utter a word as he swung an arm over her shoulder, instead grasping his hand to allow him to spin himself.

None of his siblings would’ve joined him, would’ve danced and sang and just existed alongside him, would’ve soaked up all the life around them. ~~Except Ben~~. And for once, that didn’t send an ache through him.

‘ _You can fly away with me tonight-_ ’

Sweat trickled down his neck as he brushed his hip off Sloane, her hair swinging and bouncing in dark waves to the beat, stray locks licking her face and the shoulders of her blouse.

She – one of Reggie’s apparently ‘perfect’ soldiers that he choose to be better than the like of Klaus – followed his lead as they let the music carry them.

‘ _You can fly away with me tonight-_ ’

He was so dead when he got back to the Academy.

But he didn’t care.

He couldn’t feel the alcohol pumping through his veins, the hunger digging into him and leaving him bare, starving for something to silence everything. Unclouded from guilt and disappointment, the looks his siblings _thought_ he didn’t notice or simply weren’t bothered by.

‘ _Baby, let me take you for a ride-_ ’

Klaus couldn’t feel anything but energy, the certainty in his gut when he had told his siblings of their father’s suicide, when he had ignored the thumping of his chest at the sound of gunshots to tell them that Cha-Cha was heading their way… the power flooding through him when he made Ben corporeal.

The music slurred together in his ears, the heat of the club burning between his eyes and down his arms.

‘ _I’m levitating-_ ’

Expanding like a lead balloon, the pressure in his skull prickled his ears, his neck cracking as he stretched it back, his shoulder-blades aching as he pushed his shoulders back to try and force air into his chest.

‘ _I got you moonlight, you’re my starlight-_ ’

His chest shook, heaving warm air into his insatiable lungs, the energy prickling all the way down to his fingers balked the exhaustion of his limb left deprived by the cries, the demands of the dead that he had never known how to silence.

‘ _I need you all night, come on, dance with me-_ ’

It was better than any high.

‘ _You can fly away with me tonight-_ ’

The light drew his attention slowly, glistening like a star on a cloudy night, easy to overlook unless you knew what to look for. A teal glow flickered at the base of his palms, tracing along his tattoos and twisting around his fingers as he drew his hands closer into his chest.

A gasp escaped him, wrenching out a dry breath as he stared out before him, eyes widening.

‘ _You can fly away with me tonight-_ ’

That energy…

‘ _I’m levitating-_ ’

The dancing had stopped, the music slowly drowned out as voices overtook the beat.

Blue light doused ever surface of the club; objects and even some people lazily lifted by the glow and left hanging in the air a few feet off the ground.

‘ _I got you moonlight, you’re my starlight-_ ’

Crowds clung to their places on the dancefloor, the flash of cameras erupted across the room as voices filled the air, confusion spiking the lazy atmosphere as people both pushed to get a better look and, for the few smart souls, to find the nearest exit.

‘ _I need you, all night, come on, dance with me-_ ’

“Klaus?”

‘ _I’m levitating._ ’

A tug of his shirt was all it took for the daze to break.

All at once, the light vanished with a snap, the darkness of the night taking over as the lights exploded, a shower of glass raining down onto the dance floor as shouting overtaking the dancers. The people lifted by the glow suddenly dropped to the floor, the sounds of shattering glass and objects breaking off the tile floor echoed out in the confused silence that followed.

Sloane was the only thing that stopped him from cracking his head off the floor as Klaus stumbled to his knees. Her instincts far more refined, she caught the side of his head with her arm, shifting her arm to allow his temple to rest on her forearm rather than hang between his legs.

“Klaus.” Her tone was sharp, almost demanding.

A whimper slipped through his clenched teeth, his fingers clawing through his curls as the balloon popped.

Hearing her say his name again, Klaus forced his eyes to open as he lifted his head upward.

Shouting erupted across the club, calls for ambulances and questions over the state of everyone within the club sank away into the back of his mind as Klaus stared at his own reflection within Sloane’s widened eyes. The shimmer of the same blue glow that had encompassed his hands flickered out, sinking back into his pupils as he greedily swallowed breath after breath.

Sloane was silent for a moment, her mouth agape before she clenched her jaw.

“I… I think it’s time you go home to your siblings.”

For the first time that night, Klaus couldn’t find the words to reply.

* * *

The fact that Reginald hadn’t been waiting at the door for him was all it took to convince Klaus that Sloane had kept her word, not that he had had much choice otherwise.

Dragging tired limbs in his wake, Klaus didn’t bother to be quiet, the echo that followed as he shut the door behind him before nearly falling over the carpet at the entrance that hadn’t existed in his timeline shrugged aside.

If waking up Reggie’s precious ‘Sparrows’ what his biggest crime, then so be it.

The red glow of the security camera, however, was a fond memory as he saluted it, slowly making his way towards the stairwell.

A quiet pop behind him, however, made him flinch as he felt a smaller hand grab ahold of him before the air was torn out of his lungs, his legs clumsily returned to solid ground a moment later as he stumbled away from Five with a whine.

“Christ on a cracker!” Klaus gasped, holding a hand to his chest. “You gave me a fucking heart attack!”

Said brother growled behind him, furrowing his brows as Klaus turned back to meet his face. “I’ll give you more than that you colossal idiot-!”

“Five.”

Both pausing before looking ahead, Klaus sighed as he found the rest of the family already standing to attention, each dressed in the clothes the Sparrows had given them to borrow. Why Reginald was even treating them like people was beyond him, if the geezer hadn’t even blinked before un-adopting them and virtually ruining their lives.

Even in a different timeline, their father had neglected to put cameras within the attic.

Allison frowned when he met her eye, a bubble of guilt forming in his gut that he quickly smothered. “Klaus,” She began – the soft discipline of her tone reminding him that she had, in fact, been a mother before all of the shit they had been through – before letting the anger escape through her clenched jaw. “-where the hell have you been?”

Klaus paused.

Exhaustion tempted his eyes to close, the weight of his already slim shoulders pressing down on him. Thoughts whirled around in his head – trying to articulate them had always been his problem, despite some people’s insistence that his head was, in fact, _empty_ – that failed to escape his lips at the sound of a scowl from across the room.

“Quit the maternal act,” Diego muttered from his place leaning against the furthest wall, his brows furrowed as he glared down at his makeshift knife, his belt otherwise bare after Reginald had ‘relieved’ both him and Five of any on-hand weapon in precaution. “-I can smell his breath from here.”

“Guys, I-”

“Klaus, you didn’t say anything.” Vanya spoke up, her voice refusing to waver, the words washing over her lips as if she had spent years perfecting them, unlike the quiet stumbling he had grown used to from her as children. “We thought that Dad-”

“No but guys, I went to this club and ended having a drink with Sloane-”

“Who?”

Klaus snorted, “Y’know, shorter Sparrow with the long hair and whole bird-”

“You talked to one of _them_?!”

He swallowed. “Uh… yeah? She’s like, super cool once you get to know her and then-”

“You’re an idiot!” Five nearly shouted, only quietened by a look from Vanya as she moved aside to allow Luther to stand in her place so that he could stand properly without ducking to avoid the rafters.

Luther winched as Five blinked away to the opposite side of the room, his hands raised as he muttered away crudely. “We thought that D- _Reginald_ had…”

Silence fell over them, the shift of gaze slipping away from Klaus as the group slowly drifted apart, passing by Klaus without another word aside from Five hissing about words the following morning, unwavered by the others’, while disappointed, looks.

“We’ll… we’ll talk more tomorrow, Klaus.” Vanya mumbled as she passed him, giving him a look that forced his lips to close as if Allison had rumoured him.

“Guys…!” Klaus called out to them, tilting his head as Allison slipped by him last. “Ally, you won’t believe what I-”

“We can’t lose another member of this family.” She spoke slowly. “I won’t lose you like we all lost each other before, Klaus… but just because Ben is gone doesn’t give you the right to just throw everything away.” Her lip quivered, but she simply swallowed a mouthful of air in retaliation. “Not while the rest of us are left here to pick up the pieces.”

Klaus didn’t reply, only watching as the corners of her lips curled subtly, her hand squeezing his shoulder before following the others. A shiver ran through him at the chill of the house, the familiar whispers and cries threatening to overtake his senses.

Pressing his mouth shut, Klaus simply followed.

After all, he didn't even know what to say.

**Author's Note:**

> It was only after looking up the meaning of this song after finishing this, since I didn't want anything else to affect the tone and how I interpreted it, that I learnt that this song may or may not be about people hooking up...
> 
> Ship what you wanna ship, but it was not my intention to at all suggest anything romantic between Klaus and Sloane. While they technically arent't adopted siblings, the fact that we know nothing about Sloane yet and this is my interpretation of her until Season 3 comes out AND that they both call and see the same man as their father... yeah, for now they're just adopted siblings in my eyes.


End file.
